This invention relates to a method and a device for forming a row of filter-tip cigarettes, and more particularly to a method and a device for forming a row of filter-tip cigarettes in a filter-tip cigarette producing machine, wherein one row of the filter-tip cigarettes is inverted to arrange a mount position of filters on the same side relative to the other row of the filter-tip cigarettes.
Generally, a filter-tip cigarette is produced by inserting between two cigarettes a filter member having a length for two cigarettes, winding a piece of paper with paste around a connecting portion of the filter member and the cigarettes to bond the same to the cigarettes, and cutting the filter member at its center to obtain two filter-tip cigarettes.
According to this method, two parallel rows of the filter-tip cigarettes with the filter attached on opposite sides are obtained, and therefore the two rows of the cigarettes are commonly arranged in a single row to meet the requirement for a subsequent work in a packaging or storing apparatus for example by inverting one row of the cigarettes and joining the same with the other row.
In the prior art, a supply drum having support recesses formed on an outer circumferential portion thereof at equal pitch for receiving two rows of the cigarettes is provided, and a row arrangement drum having an odd number of support recesses arranged at a pitch half the pitch of the support recesses of the supply drum is arranged with respect to the supply drum. In the row arrangement drum, one row of the cigarettes as fed from the supply drum is formed as a remaining row and the other is formed as an inversion row. Then, the cigarettes in the inversion row are outwardly rotated about an end portion of the cigarettes in the remaining row as a fulcrum to a position at a right angle to an axis of the row arrangement drum, and are subsequently inverted by an angle of 180.degree. to be joined with the remaining row, thus obtaining a single row of the cigarettes with the filters arranged on the same side.
However, in the prior art device as mentioned above, a center of gravity of the cigarettes is outwardly moved during inversion to increase a centrifugal force, and as a result, the cigarettes tend to escape out of the drum and to be hindered in smooth inverting motion. Recently, such a tendency as above has been remarkably increased with increase in operational speed of the cigarette producing machine.